Find better content than Lalu chewing paan: Dasmunsi to TV

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, whose habits, repartees and activities provide prized footages to TV channels, last night found Minister of Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi quite against the purpose he was serving for the broadcasters.

The occasion was the launch of four regional channels by STV, here last night, with a galaxy of politicians in attendance.

In the midst of some tough talking over the braodacsters' resistance to the proposed legislation for regulation of the sector, Mr Dasmunsi remarked in a lighter vein that today ''Lalu Prasad chewing tobacco is a breaking news. Or Lalu Prasad doing something else is a breaking news. How can you justify all this in the name of news coverage.'' The content of the news had become very trivial, and TV channels were going after the private life of the people or very trivial and routine things in their daily lives.

The Railway Minister skirted the issue in his remarks, but advised the broadcatsers to give more coverage to backward states like Bihar. It is the issues and problems of the people at the grassroot that matter and it was the job of the news channels to highlight them, he said.

''Today's channels were giving views in the garb of news, which should be avaoided,'' he cautioned.

Breaking the seriousness in the atmosphere brought in by the Railway Minister's remark, former Jammu and Kashmir chief Minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said that while the launch of 24-hour regional news channels was welcome, they should not be monotonous.

''There should be Lata Mangeshkar and Mallika Sherawat in between,'' he added in a lighter vein.

However, he did not miss the chance to underline that the Centre should show a better understanding of the problems faced by the states, and in this news channels and other media could play a vital role in contributing to this understanding by greater and indepth coverage of the problems of state.

Though the Centre think they know the states, bureaucrats sitting there are ignorant about the ground reality, he added.

UNI